THE BIEDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
are certainly not binomial in tbeir nomenclature, and I do not think 
that the change would be acceptable even if it were decided that these 
writers were binary, according to the idea of the International Commission. 
If such a decision were made, it would certainly prove the means of forcing 
a policy of nomina conservanda which has been so much scoffed at by 
the very ones who have forced this incorrect interpretation of the word 
“ binary.” 
I now agree in rejecting korschun, and I think since all present-day 
works are now unanimous in accepting Boddaert’s name of migrans, that 
no reversion to korschun will again take place. The plate upon which 
Boddaert’s name is founded is not a good one, though it would appear 
to have been painted from this bird, to which, however, the Black Kite 
is a decided misnomer. 
That the Austrahan bird can only be regarded as a subspecies of the 
European one is certain, and I here give a short account of the vicissitudes 
of the name. 
In the Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.^ Vol. I., 1874, Sharpe recognised four species 
thus : p. 322, Milvus korschun=migrans ; p, 323, Milvus affinis ; p. 324, 
Milvus melanotis ; and p. 325, Milvus govinda. No detailed discussion 
of these was given, so in the Ihis 1879, p. 71 et seq., Gurney gave full 
particulars of the inter-relationship of these and I quote the following 
(p. 76) : “ The geographical ranges of the eastern species of the genus 
Milvus are especially difficult to define with accuracy, in consequence of 
the very remarkable and perplexing manner in which these species or 
races merge into one another. The smallest of the Milv% the Australian 
M. affinis, contrasts conspicuously in its dimensions with the great Japanese 
M. melanotis : and yet the one species is connected with the other by 
a gradation of specimens so continuously intermediate, both in size and 
coloration, that, though it may be convenient to adopt the view of Mr. 
Sharpe, which is also that of Mr. Hume, that the series is divisible under 
the three specific heads of M. affinis, M. govinda and M. melanotis, the 
boundary lines between these three species seem to me not to be capable 
of so precise a definition as to be entirely satisfactory. . . . The specific 
name of 'affinis' was given by Mr. Gould to the Milvus inhabiting 
Australia. . . . The Kite inhabiting Ceylon and the smallest specimens of 
Indian Kites so closely resemble the t 5 rpical M. affinis, that I have long 
been in the habit of referring them to that species ; but their average 
size is slightly larger, and the great majority of specimens have more or 
less white on the under-surface of the primaries, frequently presenting 
a decided white patch. . . . Captain Legge, in his article on the 
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